John Cusack and Johnny Knoxville are set to star in Carnaval, a comedy directed by Josh Stern. Cusack will play a sports scout who tavels to Rio de Janeiro during Carnaval in order to sign a soccer star, while Knoxville has been cast as Cusack’s musician best friend who tags along. Cusack’s character needs to bring the player on board so that he can take over his agency, but his plans go awry when Knoxville’s character sleeps with the player’s girlfriend. Carnaval will begin shooting in Rio this January.

Normally, when a star drops out of a project just before it’s set to begin shooting, it’s a big setback. In Lee Daniels‘ case, Tobey Maguire‘s exit from The Paperboy could turn out to be a blessing in disguise. Maguire recently dropped out of the film, which was originally scheduled to begin this summer. His exit pushed back the timetable for the project, forcing would-be co-star Sofia Vergara to quit due to conflicts with her Modern Family shooting schedule. Now producers are in talks with Nicole Kidman to replace Vergara — a pretty impressive upgrade, at least in terms of star wattage.

Based on a 1955 novel by Pete Dexter, The Paperboy revolves around a reporter who works with his brother to investigate a murder that put the suspect on death row. Kidman would play “a woman with a dark side” who first draws the reporter’s attention to the case, and eventually strikes up a relationship with him. Matthew McConaughey and Zac Efron are still on board to co-star; there’s no word yet on who might be replacing Maguire. [The Hollywood Reporter]

After the jump, Rosario Dawson joins Josh Duhamel, Bruce Willis, and Curtis Jackson a.k.a. 50 Cent in Fire with Fire, Jeremy Irons signs on for Night Train to Lisbon, and I continue to avoid all the obvious puns, for once.